Method and system for information exchange between users of different web pages

ABSTRACT

A method and system for allowing users of different web pages to exchange information. The information exchange system identifies groups of related web pages and maintains a database of user-supplied information for each group of related web pages. When a user accesses a web page, the information exchange often displays in a separate area the information associated with the group of related web pages. Also, the information exchange system allows the user to enter information that will be displayed to other users who access related web pages.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

[0001] This application claims the benefit of provisional U.S.Application No. ______ filed Mar. 1, 2000, (formerly non-provisionalApplication Ser. No. 09/516,063) entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FORINFORMATION EXCHANGE BETWEEN USERS OF DIFFERENT WEB PAGES” which ishereby incorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] The present invention relates generally to accessing informationand, more particularly, to exchanging information related to web pages.

BACKGROUND

[0003] Because it facilitates electronic communications between vendorsand purchasers, the Internet is increasingly being used to conduct“electronic commerce.” The Internet comprises a vast number of computersand computer networks that are interconnected through communicationchannels. Electronic commerce refers generally to commercialtransactions that are at least partially conducted using the computersystems of the parties to the transactions. For example, a purchaser canuse a personal computer to connect via the Internet to a vendor'scomputer. The purchaser can then interact with the vendor's computer toconduct the transaction. Although many of the commercial transactionsthat are performed today could be performed via electronic commerce, theacceptance and wide-spread use of electronic commerce depends, in largepart, upon the ease-of-use of conducting such electronic commerce. Ifelectronic commerce can be easily conducted, then even the novicecomputer user will choose to engage in electronic commerce. Therefore,it is important that techniques be developed to facilitate conductingelectronic commerce.

[0004] The Internet facilitates conducting electronic commerce, in part,because it uses standardized techniques for exchanging information. Manystandards have been established for exchanging information over theInternet, such as electronic mail, Gopher, and the World Wide Web(“WWW”). The WWW service allows a server computer system (i.e., webserver or web site) to send graphical web pages of information to aremote client computer system. The remote client computer system canthen display the web pages. Each resource (e.g., computer or web page)of the WWW is uniquely identifiable by a Uniform Resource Locator(“URL”). To view a specific web page, a client computer system specifiesthe URL for that web page in a request (e.g., a HyperText TransferProtocol (“HTTP”) request). The request is forwarded to the web serverthat supports that web page. When that web server receives the request,it sends the requested web page to the client computer system. When theclient computer system receives that web page, it typically displays theweb page using a browser. A browser is typically a special-purposeapplication program that effects the requesting of web pages and thedisplaying of web pages.

[0005] Currently, web pages are generally defined using HyperText MarkupLanguage (“HTML”). HTML provides a standard set of tags that define howa web page is to be displayed. When a user indicates to the browser todisplay a web page, the browser sends a request to the server computersystem to transfer to the client computer system an HTML document thatdefines the web page. When the requested HTML document is received bythe client computer system, the browser displays the web page as definedby the HTML document. The HTML document contains various tags thatcontrol the displaying of text, graphics, controls, and other features.The HTML document may contain URLs of other web pages available on thatserver computer system or other server computer systems.

[0006] The World Wide Web portion of the Internet is especiallyconducive to conducting electronic commerce. Many web servers have beendeveloped through which vendors can advertise and sell product. Theproducts can include items (e.g., music) that are deliveredelectronically to the purchaser over the Internet and items (e.g.,books) that are delivered through conventional distribution channels(e.g., a common carrier). A server computer system may provide anelectronic version of a catalog that lists the items that are available.A user, who is a potential purchaser, may browse through the catalogusing a browser and select various items that are to be purchased. Whenthe user has completed selecting the items to be purchased, the servercomputer system then prompts the user for information to complete theordering of the items. This purchaser-specific order information mayinclude the purchaser's name, the purchaser's payment information (e.g.,credit card number), and a shipping address for the order. The servercomputer system then typically confirms the order by sending aconfirming web page to the client computer system and schedules shipmentof the items.

[0007] One problem with the conducting of electronic commerce via theWorld Wide Web is that it is difficult for users to obtain sufficientinformation on items that are being sold. For example, a user may desireto know what other users think of the item that the user iscontemplating purchasing. Some server computer systems allow users toprovide comments relating to an item. For example, a web page for acertain book may allow users to provide a summary of the book or othercomments related to that book. When other users access the web page forthat book, the server computer system can add those comments to webpage. Although such a mechanism for providing comments improves thedissemination of information, the comments are accessible to and can beentered by only those users to happen to access that web page. Inparticular, a vendor who sells that same book would not have access tothose comments provided to any other vendor's web pages. Thus, a usermay need to visit various vendor web sites to obtain sufficientinformation to make an informed purchasing decision. More generally, itis difficult for users of one web site to share information with usersof another web site. It would be desirable to have a system in whichinformation could be more readily disseminated to web users.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008]FIG. 1 illustrates a sample display of a web page and accompanyingexchanged information.

[0009]FIG. 2 illustrates a sample display of a web page and accompanyingcategory information.

[0010]FIG. 3 illustrates a sample display of a web page and accompanyingexchanged information in a bulletin board format.

[0011]FIG. 4 illustrates a sample display of a web page and accompanyingexchanged information in a chat room format.

[0012]FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating components of theinformation exchange system in one embodiment.

[0013]FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating the contents of variousdatabases.

[0014]FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating the processing of theinformation exchange server engine when a URL is received.

[0015]FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating the processing of theinformation exchange server engine when a category selection isreceived.

[0016]FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating example processing of theinformation exchange server engine when user comments are received.

BACKGROUND

[0017] A method and system for exchanging information between users ofdifferent web pages is provided. The information exchange system allowsusers of one web page to view information provided by users of anotherweb page, which may be hosted on a different web site. The informationexchange system allows a user who is accessing a certain web page tosupply information (e.g., comments) to be associated with that web pagein a manner that is separate from or outside of the web page itself. Thesystem provides that user-supplied information to other users who accessrelated web pages. The information exchange system has relationshipinformation that indicates which web pages are related. For example, therelationship information may indicate that a web page for a book at oneweb site is related to a web page for that book at another web site.When another user accesses a related web page, then the informationexchange system retrieves the user-supplied information associated withthe related web pages and provides that information to the useraccessing the web page. In one embodiment, the information is providedto users in a frame or window that is separate from the frame or windowin which the web page is displayed. In this way, a user is not limitedto reviewing information that is provided by other users of the same webpage.

[0018] In one embodiment, the information exchange system provides aclient-side component and a server-side component. The client-sidecomponent executes on a user's computer, and the server-side componentexecutes on an information exchange computer. The client-side component,which may be a browser plug-in, a proxy server, or other type ofprogram, monitors a user's access to web pages. When a web page isaccessed, the client-side component sends an indication of the accessedweb page to the server-side component. The server-side component thendetermines if information associated with a related web page has beenentered by a user. If so, the server-side component sends theinformation to the client-side component. The client-side component thencontrols the display of the information at the user's computer. Forexample, the client-side component may display the information in aframe adjacent to the accessed web page. The client-side component mayalso allow the user to enter information to be associated with theaccessed web page. If so, the client-side component sends the entered-information to the server-side component so that information can bestored and then provided when related web pages are accessed. In anotherembodiment, the information exchange system may only have a server-sidecomponent. In such embodiment, all requests to access a web page may berouted through the information exchange system. The information exchangesystem would then retrieve the web page from the server that hosts thatweb page and then retrieve the user-supplied information associated withrelated web pages. The information exchange system would then provideboth the web page and the information to the requesting user's computer.The information exchange system may modify the web pages that itprovides to the requesting user's computer so that accesses tonavigation links of that web page are routed through the informationexchange system. In this way, the information exchange system can detectwhen web pages are accessed.

[0019] The information exchange system may provide various ways forrelating web pages. In one embodiment, the information exchange systemmay maintain a mapping of each web page to its related web pages.Whenever a web page is accessed, then the information associated withthe related web pages is retrieved and provided to the user accessingthe web page. In another embodiment, each web page can be associatedwith a category or categories within a hierarchy of categories. Webpages associated with the same categories are considered related.Whenever such a web page is accessed, the information exchange systemwould determine the categories of that web page and provide theuser-supplied information associated with those categories. If a webpage is associated with multiple categories, then the informationexchange system may request that the user select the category ofinterest. In another embodiment, the information exchange system mayrelate web pages based upon keywords associated with each web page or inany other way in which web pages may be related. Also, the relationshipbetween web pages can be dynamically identified. For example, theinformation exchange system may categorize a web page when it isaccessed by analyzing the content of the web page. Also, web pages maybe identified as related based on analysis of access patters of user.For example, if a set of users access a certain group of web pages, thenthey may be considered to be related. The information exchange systemmay use clustering techniques collaborative filter techniques, so as toidentify the groups of related web pages.

[0020] The information exchange system may allow user-suppliedinformation to be organized using various models. In one embodiment, theinformation exchange system stores all information provided by any userwho accesses any web page in a group of related web pages. When a useraccesses one of the related web pages, then the information exchangesystem provides this information to the accessing user. Alternatively,the information exchange system may provide a chat session model inwhich users can, in real-time, see and respond to information providedby users of related web pages. In another alternative embodiment, theinformation exchange system may provide the information in a bulletinboard-type model. Also, the information provided may not necessarily beuser-supplied. Instead, the information may be provided by a non-userentity. For example, a book review service may provide book reviews thatare displayed whenever a user accesses a web page relating to a certainbook. The book review service may not have a user who accesses any ofthe related web pages.

[0021]FIG. 1 illustrates a sample display of a web page and accompanyingexchanged information. The display 100 includes a web page area 101 andinformation exchange area 102. The web page area contains the content ofthe web page that is being accessed. The information exchange areaincludes a title sub-area 103, an information display sub-area 104, anda new comment sub-area 105. In this example, any information entered byusers of the related web page is displayed in order of entry when a useraccesses one of the related web pages. That information is displayed inthe information display sub-area. A user may use a scroll bar to scrollthrough the displayed information. The information exchange system maydisplay an indication of the date and time that information was enteredby the user and may also display an indication of the identity of theuser who entered information. The user may be identified by name or by amoniker to conceal the user's actual identity. A user may enteradditional information in the new comment sub-area and then select thesubmit button to submit the comments to the information exchange system.When the information exchange system receives the new comments, itstores the comments in a database keyed to the group of related webpages. In this example, the information exchange area is shown as partof the same window that contains the web page area. One skilled in theart will appreciate that the information exchange area may also bestored in a separate window that may be a pop-up window.

[0022]FIG. 2 illustrates a sample display of a web page and accompanyingcategory information. The category information may include a hierarchyof categories that are associated with web pages. For example, a webpage may be within a sporting category and further within a footballsub-category of the sporting category. If a user selects to viewinformation relating to the sporting category, then the informationexchange system would displayed information relating to all web pages inthe sporting category regardless of their underlying sub-categories.Alternatively, if the user browses to and selects the footballsub-category, then the information exchange system would display onlyinformation relating to web pages in the football sub-category. Thedisplay 200 includes a web page area 201 and a category selection area202. The category selection contains area contains links associated witheach category. When a user selects a category, then the informationexchange system displays an information exchange area containinginformation relating to the selected category. The information exchangemay allow user to indicate a desire to list the sub-categories of adisplayed category. For example, when a user moves a pointer over (e.g.,mouse over) a category name, the information exchange system may displaythe sub-categories that are associated with the web page. The user canthen select a sub-category to view information related only to web pagesin that sub-category.

[0023]FIG. 3 illustrates a sample display of a web page and accompanyingexchanged information in a bulletin board format. The display 300includes a web page area 301 and a bulletin board area 302. The bulletinboard area displays questions posted by users and answers by other usersto those questions. A user may use conventional bulletin boardtechniques to submit questions and answers via the bulletin board area.

[0024]FIG. 4 illustrates a sample display of a web page and accompanyingexchanged information in a chat room format. The display 400 includes aweb page area 401 and a chat room area 402. The chat room area displaysthe contents of current conversations currently being conducted by usersaccessing any web page in a group of related web pages. A user may entercomments in the entry area 403 and select the submit comments button toprovide the comments to the information exchange system. When theinformation exchange system receives the comments, it stores them in adatabase associated with that group of related web pages. Theinformation exchange system may then send those comments to all otherusers were currently accessing related web pages.

[0025]FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating components of theinformation exchange system in one embodiment. The client computers 501and the server computers 502 and 504 are interconnected via the Internet503. The computers may include a central processing unit, memory, inputdevices (e.g., keyboard and pointing device), output devices (e.g.,display devices), and storage devices (e.g. disk drives). The memory andstorage devices are computer-readable media that may contain computerinstructions that implement the information exchange system. The clientcomputers may use a browser to access various web pages via theInternet. The information exchange server computer 504 includesinformation exchange server engine 505, a page/category database 506, acategory information database 507, a user database 508, a page/groupdatabase 509, and a group information database 510. The informationexchange server engine receives notifications that a web page has beenaccessed, retrieves information associated with related web page, andsupplies that information to a client computer system. The page/categorydatabase contains a mapping from each web page to the categoriesassociated with that web page. When the information exchange serverengine receives an indication that a web page has been accessed, it mayaccess the page/category database to identify the categories associatedwith that web page. The category information database contains a mappingfrom each category to the information associated with that category. Theinformation may be formatted according to the model used to present theinformation. For example, if the information is presented using abulletin board information model, then the information in the categoryinformation database may be stored in a question and answer format. Theuser database may contain information relating to the various users andan indication as to whether they are authorized to use the informationexchange system. The user database may also contain a listing of thecategories of interest to a user. The information exchange system mayonly display information to users when they access a web page in thecategory of interest as indicated by the user database. The page/groupdatabase and the group information database are analogous to thepage/category and the category information databases in that they definea relationship of web pages and the associated information. A groupingof web pages can simply be some collection of web pages that are definedto be related. The grouping of web page can be performed automaticallyin various ways. For example, clustering techniques can be used based onreview of access patterns or analysis of the text of a web page usinginformation as retrieval (“IR”) techniques.

[0026] One skilled in the art will appreciate the concepts ofinformation exchange system can be used in various environments otherthan the Internet. For example, the concepts can also be used inelectronic mail environments in which the electronic mail messages mayinclude the equivalent of a web page and associated exchangedinformation. New information can be supplied by sending an electronicmessage to the information exchange server. Also, various communicationchannels other than the Internet may be used, such as a local areanetwork, a wide area network, or a point-to-point dial-up connection.The concepts of the information exchange system may also be used in asingle computer environment rather than a client/server environment.Also, the information exchange server may comprise any combination ofhardware or software that can support these concepts. In particular, theserver system may actually include multiple computers. A client systemmay comprise any combination of hardware or software that interacts withthe server system. These client systems may include television-basedsystems and various other consumer products through which web pages maybe accessed.

[0027]FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating the contents of variousdatabases. Table 601 illustrates sample contents of a user database. Theuser database may contain a user identification, an indication as towhether information exchange is enabled for the user, and variouscategories that are of interest in the user. For example, a user mayexpress an interest in web pages in the categories of science fiction orskiing. When the user accesses a web page in a science fiction or skiingcategory, then the information exchange system would display exchangedinformation relating to that category. However, when the user access toweb page not related to a category of interest, the information exchangesystem would not display in the information associated with that webpage. One skilled in the art will also appreciate that various differenttechniques may be used for specifying categories of interest. Forexample, a user may indicate that all categories are of interest. Table602 illustrates sample contents of a page/category database. Each entryin this database contains a mapping from the URL of a web page to thevarious categories the web page is within.

[0028] FIGS. 7-9 are flow diagrams illustrating example processing ofthe information exchange system. FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustratingthe processing of the information exchange server engine when a URL isreceived. This routine is passed a URL and a user ID. In block 701, theroutine retrieves a record from the user database for the passed userID. In decision block 702, if the retrieved record indicates thatinformation exchange is enabled for that user, then the routinecontinues at block 704, else the routine continues at block 703. In ablock 703, the routine sends an appropriate notification to the user andthen completes. In block 704, the routine retrieves a record from thepage/category database for the passed URL. This retrieved recordindicates the categories associated with the passed URL. In block 705,the routine generates a display description for a category informationarea. The routine may limit the categories to those of interest to theuser as indicated by the user database. This display description may bedescribed using HTML. In block 706, the routine sends the displaydescription to the user computer and then completes.

[0029]FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating the processing of theinformation exchange server engine when a category selection isreceived. This routine is passed an indication of a selected category.In block 801, the routine retrieves a record for the category from thecategory information database. In block 802, the routine generates adisplay description containing the exchanged information from theretrieved record. In block 803, the routine sends the generated displaydescription to the user computer and then completes.

[0030]FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating example processing of theinformation exchange server engine when user comments are received. Thisroutine is passed an indication of a category, a user ID, and thecomments. In block 901, the routine retrieves the record for thecategory from the category information database. In block 902, theroutine updates the retrieved record with the comments. In block 903,the routine stores the updated record back into the category informationdatabase. In block 904, the routine notifies current users, asappropriate, that the information has been changed. The routine thencompletes.

[0031] From the foregoing it will be appreciated that although specificembodiments of the information exchange system have been described forpurposes of illustration, various modifications may be made withoutdeviating from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example,user-supplied information can be associated with resources other thanthat web page. For example, the information can be associated with anyURL or any display description that describes a display layout.Accordingly the invention is not limited except by the appended claims.

1. A method in a computer system for exchanging information betweenusers of web sites, the method comprising: providing a mapping between afirst web site and a second site; when a first user accesses the firstweb site, providing a web page of the first web site; receivinginformation from the first user; and storing the received informationbased on the provided mapping; and when a second user accesses thesecond web site, providing a web page of the second web site; retrievingthe stored information based on the provided mapping; and providing adisplay of the retrieved information so that the first and second userscan exchange information.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the mappingis based on a common category associated with web pages.
 3. The methodof claim 1 wherein the mapping is based on a grouping of web pages. 4.The method of claim 1 wherein the mapping is based on keywordsassociated with web pages.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein theretrieving of the stored information is in response to a query submittedby the second user.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the first user andthe second user participate in a chat session.
 7. The method of claim 1wherein the information received from the first user is in response to aquestion previously asked by the second user.
 8. The method of claim 1wherein the information received from the first user is enteredseparately from a display of the web page of the first web site.
 9. Amethod in a computer system for controlling the exchange of informationbetween users of web pages, the method comprising: receiving anindication of a web page from a first user computer; retrieving the webpage from a first web server; sending the retrieved web page to thefirst user computer; retrieving information associated with the webpage, the retrieved information having been previously received fromsecond user computer when accessing a web page of a second web server;and sending the retrieved information to the first user computer. 10.The method of claim 9 wherein the sent information is displayed at thefirst user computer in an area separate from a display of the sent webpage.
 11. The method of claim 9 wherein, before sending the retrievedweb page, it is modified so that navigation requests generated throughthat web page are routed through the computer system.
 12. The method ofclaim 9 wherein the retrieved information relates to a chat session. 13.The method of claim 9 wherein the retrieved information relates to abulletin board.
 14. The method of claim 9 wherein the retrievedinformation includes questions and answers.
 15. The method of claim 9including receiving additional information from the first user computerand storing the received information so that it can be sent when a webpage of the first and second web server is accessed.
 16. A method in acomputer system for accessing information associated with a web page,the method comprising: sending a request for a first web page; and inresponse to sending the request, receiving the first web page; andreceiving information associated with the first web page, theinformation being previously entered by a user when accessing a secondweb page, the information having been entered separately from the secondweb page.
 17. The method of claim 16 wherein the first web page and thesecond web page are related.
 18. The method of claim 17 wherein the webpages are related based on categories associated with the web pages. 19.The method of claim 17 wherein the web pages are related based onkeywords associated with the web pages.
 20. The method of claim 16wherein the request for the first web page is sent to one web server andincluding sending a request for information associated with that webpage to another computer.
 21. The method of claim 16 wherein the requestfor the first web page is sent to a web server that sends the first webpage and the information associated with the first web page.
 22. Acomputer system for controlling exchange of information between users ofweb pages, comprising: a user component for downloading to usercomputers, the user component for detecting access of a web page, forsending an indication of the access to a server, and for displayinginformation received in response to sending the indication; and aninformation component for receiving an indication of the access, forlocating information associated with a related web page, and for sendingthe located information to a user computer.